Why You Aren’t Coming Up With New (or Good) Ideas

Ideas are nothing without action, so the saying goes.

It’s a little glib, but I’m not going to argue with it.

It’s also true, however, that action is nothing without an idea, and more often than not, even action and idea together amount to less than we hoped for or maybe even nothing at all.

It’s a disheartening reality, but as anyone who’s started a business and kept it going for any amount of time will tell you, the first (or second, third, fourth…) thing you try rarely works out as you’d hoped.

And even if you do hit it big once, that’s probably not enough.

Most of us can only squeeze so much life out of our individual hits before being relegated to the category of One-Hit Wonders along with Psy, Gotye, and Baha Men…

The key then to both getting off the ground and then remaining aloft once we’ve done so is to ensure we have a steady stream of ideas ready to get to work on when the time is right.

Coming Up With Ideas Is Hard

When I made my first foray into the world of podcasts, one of my favourite shows was Question Of The Day, with Stephen Dubner (of Freakonomics fame) and James Altucher (of James Altucher fame…).

It was a short, daily show in which the two friends would have a lighthearted discussion around a topic, often presented by a listener. I’d often binge-listen through 4 or 5 episodes a day…